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Pegaso was an established company noted for its trucks and motor coaches, but also produced sports cars for seven years. Pegaso chief technical manager was Wifredo Ricart, former designer of the Alfa Romeo 512, and fellow rival of Enzo Ferrari, who at the time had also worked for Alfa Romeo. The Z-102 employed racing-car technology in its chassis and alloy body. Everything was produced in-house at Barcelona, where the Pegaso cars factory was, with the exception of the external coachworking, either by Touring, Serra or Saoutchik (there were also a number of special Pegaso-made bodies). A four-cam all-alloy V8 engine, dry-sump lubrication, and a 5-speed non-synchromesh gearbox mounted with the differential as a unit were within a pressed steel chassis. The Z-102 started life as two prototypes in 1951 as a coupe and a drophead. The coupe and convertible had dumpy steel bodies, and weight was an issue to the extent that Pegaso made the decision to revert to alloy for the coachwork. Coachbuilder Touring then ‘beautified’ the design, replacing the grille with a two-piece cross, lowering the car, repositioning the foglights, and simplifying various details to give it a clean profile, similar to the contemporary Aston Martin DB2 and the Lancia Aurelia. The Z102 entered production with a 2.5 litre engine as used in the prototypes, though later there were variants with 2.8, and 3.2 litre DOHC desmodromic 32-valve V8 360 hp engines with multiple carburetors or optional supercharger. Horsepower ranged from 175 to 360, and, transferred through a five-speed gearbox and gear-driven camshaft, the fastest could reach 160 mph, exceeding Ferrari, thus making it the world’s fastest production car at the time. The base car had a 120 mph top speed. However, the cars were heavy and brutish to drive and competition success was virtually nonexistent. Because the cars were built on a cost-no-object basis, this caused financial difficulty in the company. A simplified and cheaper version, the Z-103 with 3.9, 4.5 and 4.7 litre engines, was put into production, but to no avail, and the Z-102 was discontinued after 1958. Production figures for the Z-102 ranges from 84 to 125 cars being built. 1951 Pegaso Z-102 For SaleDetails: Seller Fiskens does not disclose the asking price. Car is located in England. Seller Comments: “Despite the obvious post-war austerity, Ricart set about producing a dry sump, quad cam engine complete with a five speed transaxle coupled with a De Dion rear axle. An astonishing achievement at the time! Originally conceived as Prototype BE 1 and was completed in 1951 and stunned the audience at the Salon de Paris later that year. Between 1953 and 1955, 0202 competed at Montjuich and Barajas circuits near Barcelona before being uprated and renumbered by the factory in 1955 to the current specification. The present owner bought the car in the late Sixties and it is to this day one of the earliest and most original prototypical Pegasos in existence.”
www.sportscardigest.com/car-profile-–-pegaso-z-102/
That Spanish truck manufacturer ENASA should have built one of the most …

Talbot-Lago T26 Record chassis 100272 is another of the three momentous Saoutchik barnfinds in the collection of the late Jacques Baillon. The emergence of this extremely rare car is all the more remarkable, as it was believed lost. It shares the chassis as well as its powerful engine and mechanicals with Talbot-Lago T26 100239 presented in the sale, and is one of 208 T26 Records manufactured in 1948. The vast majority of these cars were given one of a number of factory bodystyles manufactured in-house by Talbot. 100272 is one of the rare instances where a Record chassis was sent to a prominent carrossier to receive a one-off body. The price of the Record chassis alone was an astronomical 1,165,000 francs in 1948. Saoutchik charged 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 francs for a full-size convertible body. When delivered, the price of admission for 100272 would have approached 4,000,000 francs, more than enough to buy ten complete Citroën Traction Avant! In 1938, Pierre Saoutchik had worked on the design of the famous Hispano-Suiza Xenia, commissioned by André Dubonnet, currently in the Mullin Automotive Museum in California. This work had been a watershed experience for Pierre Saoutchik, and when he took over design duties at the Carrosserie Saoutchik in 1946, his initial styles took inspiration from the Xenia. This is evident in a number of design details on 100272. This includes the pointed hood with its shark-nosed grille, the rounded front fender shapes with integrated headlamps and fog lights, the fully encased flowing rear fenders, as well as the long and sloping rear deck. 100272 received considerable publicity in period, as the October 1948 Paris Salon editions of several French periodicals carried pictures of this remarkable car. One image in particular demands attention as it is a color photo which documents the subtle and impeccable original gray over dark blue two-tone color scheme, complemented by a leather interior in an identical shade of blue. The new owner will therefore have no issues restoring the car to its original livery should he so choose. It has been widely reported that 100272 was first acquired by King Farouk of Egypt, and it was known as "the Farouk car" in the Baillon family. However, contemporary accounts assign first ownership of the car to His Excellency Salah Bey Orabi of Cairo, where Bey was an Arabic title comparable to Sir in England. Salah Orabi was married to Princess Nevine Abbas Halim, a member of the Egyptian Royal Family, and daughter of Prince Abbas Halim as well as great-great-granddaughter of Mohamed Ali Pasha. The couple lived a charmed life of privilege in the international jet set, but everything tumbled and they became social pariahs when King Farouk was overthrown in the Egyptian Revolution in July 1952 and forced to abdicate. Princess Nevine Abbas Halim is still alive and divides her life between Egypt and Paris. On November 29, 1954 at 1.30 p.m., there was a hearing at the Tribunal de Commerce du Département de la Seine in a case …

Bentley ranks amongst the famous makes in history. Founded by W.O.Bentley in 1919, his cars were most successful in racing, having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans no less than 5 times. The Great Depression and the fading support by its financier Woolf Barnato led to the end of the W.O. period in 1931, when the company was taken over by its rival Rolls-Royce and production moved to Derby. After World War II, the Rolls-Royce plant was moved from Derby to Crewe. Although in the process of industrialisation, Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars were made in the new "Standard Steel" version (car totally built in house including coachwork), the more luxurious "Coachbuilt" version was still available to special offer. For the "Coachbuilt" version, the manufacturer built the "rolling chassis" but then commissioned the coachwork to an authorised coachbuilder, allowing the customer to choose from a variety of different coachwork designs.
From 1950 until 1959, all Bentley cars featured the 6-cylinder engine legendary from the Thirties, gradually upgraded to 4.5 litre, and 4.9 litre after 1959. No other engine offers the silence, smoothness and total absence of any vibration like the Bentley 6-cylinder engine. The subsequent Bentley V8 engine after 1959 was clearly stronger, but not nearly as refined.
Only Bentley (not Rolls-Royce) cars were optionally available with the "Continental" option, an upgrade featuring a more sporty suspension, a higher rear axle ratio and a rev counter instrument, suitable for long distance high-speed cruising. This "Continental" option made these large and elegant Bentley cars surprisingly sporty and nimble to drive. On the coachwork side, one particular model is a milestone in the history of Postwar Bentley cars – the S1 Continental Park Ward Coupé. For reasons never quite understood, the S1 Continental Park Ward handles infinitely better than its contemporaries by H.J.Mulliner, James Young, etc, which must have to do with the way that the bodies are attached to the chassis. Another quality makes the S1 Continental Park Ward unique – its outstanding coachwork design which is elegant yet very sporty.
This particular car, the S1 Continental Park Ward Fixed-Head Coupé chassis N°BC38LCH is very special for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is one of only 33 cars built with left hand drive (of which only some 10 examples were made with the small rear quarter window). Secondly, it was totally restored by foremost expert P. & A. Wood from 2005 until 2009, including a number of special upgrades such as secondary fuel pump system, auxiliary fan system and fully integrated air conditioning. No other Fifties grand touring coupé car offer performances and comfort quite like this car.